- Hardcover: 352 pages
- Publisher: HarperCollins Entertainment (5 Sep 2005)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 0007207271
- ISBN-13: 978-0007207275
- Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 15 x 3.6 cm
- Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (41 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 306,991 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Bigger than Hitler - Better than Christ
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Product Description
Review
'a ludicrous…very funny – fusion of fact and comic fantasy'
The Times
'… a dense clootie dumpling of a book.'
Sunday Herald
'… hilariously irreverent …'
Daily Express
'It's a masterpiece in tongue-in-cheek ego-mania, a comic tour de force or – if you are the ghost of Mary Whitehouse – a nasty, smelly, subversive book about an incurable bighead who shouldn't be on the telly, let alone in print.'
The Journal, Newcastle upon Tyne
'… should get a few old farts in Tunbridge Wells trying to work out how to send emails … Mayall's disciples will love this nook and he might win over several million more followers with it.'
Sport Lads Mag (plus four stars)
'… full of fun and laughter, just like the man himself. A word of warning: don't read it in public …the belly-laughs may cause embarrassment.'
Nottingham Evening Post
*****
Nuts Magazine
Product Description
In this electrifying autobiography, Rik stands naked in front of his vast legions of fans and disciples and invites them to take communion with the blood he has spilled for them during his thirty year war on show business.
He invented alternative comedy with The Young Ones, he brought down the Thatcher administration with The New Statesman and he changed the face of global culture with his masterpiece Bottom. Not only was his number one single Living Doll the saviour of rock 'n' roll but he also rescued the British film industry with the vast revenues created by his legendary movie Drop Dead Fred. In 1998, he survived an assassination attempt and spent five days in a coma before he literally came back from the dead. Having completed countless phenomenal feature films, TV series, live extravaganzas and radio voice-overs since then, Rik Mayall is now poised on the brink of a whole new epoch-shattering revolution.
For the first time ever, Rik reveals in print the deep inner truth behind his gargantuan ascent to the pinnacle of international light entertainment – the mental hospitals he has broken out of, the television executives he has assaulted, the drugs he has definitely not taken, the charities he has bankrupted, the countless pregnancies he has engendered, and so much more.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
This book is absolutely hilarious! I couldn't read a single page without at laughing out loud. It is so "Rik" that I could imagine him sitting there with all of his quirky facial expressions writing each word. I have enjoyed Mayall's humor since the first time I saw him as "Prik with a silent P" in Young Ones. I live in the States and am sorry to say that not everyone understands his biting wit, but the educated ones who do would also agree that "Bigger Than Hitler, Better Than Christ" is well worth the money spent. It's Rik's life the way he tells it. 'Nuff said.
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Hardcover
WARNING!! If you are expecting this book to be a 'behind the curtains/flaps/quad hog crash induced coma' insight into the life, so far, of Rik Mayall then I advise you to steer clear.
What Rik has presented to the world is a sugar coated overview of his career to date which, although hysterically funny in parts, doesn't really reveal alot about the comedy legend. To be fair to 'The Rik Mayall', the book was never presented as a biography - the title itself gives any possible reader a clue as to what to expect.
What you should expect is a book that is bristling with hysterical storytelling and also, unfortunately, alot (I'm talking about whole chapters)of mind-numbing waffle that really should have been edited. The final chapter is dull but others glisten with a sprinkling of classic side-splitting Rik Mayall (His chapter on the carnage at the Ambassadors Theatre in Woking immediately springs to mind).
If you are a genuine Rik Mayall fan I would definitely recommend this book but dont expect an easy time of it.
What Rik has presented to the world is a sugar coated overview of his career to date which, although hysterically funny in parts, doesn't really reveal alot about the comedy legend. To be fair to 'The Rik Mayall', the book was never presented as a biography - the title itself gives any possible reader a clue as to what to expect.
What you should expect is a book that is bristling with hysterical storytelling and also, unfortunately, alot (I'm talking about whole chapters)of mind-numbing waffle that really should have been edited. The final chapter is dull but others glisten with a sprinkling of classic side-splitting Rik Mayall (His chapter on the carnage at the Ambassadors Theatre in Woking immediately springs to mind).
If you are a genuine Rik Mayall fan I would definitely recommend this book but dont expect an easy time of it.
10 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Well this is certainly no follow the formula biography - it is as zany and `out there' as the man himself. I really enjoyed the book being a big Mayall fan but can understand that it could drive others mad trying to stick with it. Best read in bite size chunks and you will be laughing out loud.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
Barely readable - even for big (P)rick fans
I'm a big fan.. (ooer! sounds like that could get a bit rude!) but really this is pretty poor - a few mild chortles here and there, but its heavy going, with pages of padding. Read more
Published 4 months ago by A D
Just not very good.
I so wanted to like this. I loved watching Rik in The Young Ones, Bottom, Filthy, Rich and Catflap, Blackadder, and the New Statesman. But this book just isn't very good. Read more
Published 18 months ago by THE MAN WITH THE FLAN
I'm a big Mayall fan, and even for me this is a bit heavy going
Sit back, slip your brain into neutral (or 'Rik Mayall Mode') and then you can enjoy this. It's written the way he speaks when he's on a serious roll, so if you don't like or know... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Lee Harris
a tease
Rik Mayall could have spared us some of his arrogant waffle and given us a true classic. but unfortunately this book goes flat by the 150th page, where most of his career... Read more
Published on 31 May 2010 by James C. Vallerine
Just the importants
The book was for my wife. I know she thinks Rik Mayall is hilarious and I've read some in this book and it's great! Read more
Published on 5 Feb 2010 by Kevin Mestdagh
Book or Doorstop
I've read some of the reviews here and they're far easier to read than this book. Some people recommend reading in bitesize chunks, thats fair to say as long as its about a line a... Read more
Published on 11 Nov 2009 by Mr. I. Ryan
Slightly Odd
I have been a big fan of Rik Mayall since the early 80's. I was very much looking forward to this book to find out about him and his early life. Read more
Published on 20 July 2009 by M. Clark
Nonsense
I was rather looking forward to reading this but in all honesty it's really rather boring. The same unfunny "jokes" are repeated over and over again. Read more
Published on 22 Jun 2009 by Paul Crisp
Is he full of himself or what?
Absolutely not! We're talking The Rik "no BS" Mayall. He proves his points thoroughly and perfectly, and you are left in no doubt that The Rik Mayall is in fact both bigger than... Read more
Published on 7 Dec 2008 by Steen Lykke Laursen
Shorter Than War and Peace: More Words Than Spot's First Christmas
`Bigger than Hitler, Better than Christ' is Rik Mayall's provocatively titled autobiography. In it Rik takes us from his childhood of blackmailing teachers, to his student years,... Read more
Published on 23 May 2008 by Ian Wood, Author of 'Here's 2 Absent Fathers'
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